I feel this happens to me a lot, where I’ll just open a ridiculous bomb and then have trouble supporting the guild it’s in. It’s probably too broad a question to answer succinctly, but when do you normally ‘jump ship’ as it were into another guild (say Gruul, which looked obscenely open)? Do you find you stick to your guns longer than you should more often than not? And are there any guidelines to keep in mind when presented with this situation? Thanks Marshall, good stuff as always.

Think i snatch up that primordial. If youre building orzhov control, you need a decent amount of stuff that go over the top and black primordial does an awesome job of stabilizing too. I think you can pick up devour flesh later than another awesome finisher.

Higher casting cost was NOT what Marshall needed. Orzhov was cut almost completely (he saw only one extort card the whole draft after picking his bomb). The picks also showed that Boros was moderately open and Gruul was very open (first pack picks at least). But it makes it hard to have a 2-color bomb to then jump completely over to 2 different colors. He could have ended up with a Borzhov deck as well, but those still need extort to work well.

Thank you, Marshall, for showing us the pitfalls of 3-colors as well as an unsuccessful draft – I know if I was putting up videos I would be tempted to only show the successes!

Interesting draft, haven’t watched the match videos yet but I would like to say that not picking that foil Cartel Aristocrat was a mistake. Another 2 drop which your top-heavy deck desperately needs, and absolute INSANE combo potential with the Ogre Slumlord. I honestly can’t see how you lose if you can get that running. Anyways, thanks again for the great content Marshall!

Some constructive criticism: during the drafting sections you spend a lot of time simple naming cards in the pack rather than analyzing them. We know what the cards are and what they can do maybe just list the top 3 in your opinion and not like 8 cards ‘randomly’ out of every pack.

I drafted very similar esper decks twice last night and here is my analysis.
1. I wish either of my decks would have had that angel it is SWEET!
2. my first deck was easily 3-0 due almost entirely to the 2 drop slot with 3x skyjek getting in some early damage or trading early – lesson learned: 2 drops matter a lot even in the control deck
my second deck only managed 1-1 losing to gruul in round 2 due to a lack of 2drops. I only had dimir guildmage, high priest, and orzhov guildmage and it wasn’t enough
3. my blue splash in both cases was for cards more substantial than mortis striders which is bad without extort and guildmage which is bad without a mill plan (though soul ransom is sweet) dinrova horror or bane alley broker are both better on the splash, and even clinging anemone is better than strider without other synergies – lesson learned: the splash needs to be worth it
4. the 3-0 deck started with a 1st pick rubblehulk and only moved into WUB at pick 4 with a guildmage and got passed tons of sweet black removal and extort guys the 1-1 deck started with a guildmage and a spectacle and ended up with a bad curve and no good extort guys – lesson learned: find the open guild

I hope my two cents gives some more perspective on this archetype, and as always thanks for the awesome draft content

Limited Resources
Limited Resources podcast co-host Marshall Sutcliffe provides coverage on North American Magic events and writes for DailyMTG. He educates listeners about limited and heads the highest-prizing clan on MTGO.

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